Virtual Shopping Assistant

A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:

• storing, in a personal inventory database, first identification information associated with a first item purchased by a first user at a first website of a first merchant, the first identification information being obtained electronically from one or more first servers that provide the first website;
• storing, in the personal inventory database, second identification information associated with a second item purchased by the first user at a second website of a second merchant, the second merchant being a different merchant than the first merchant, the second website being a different website than the first website, the second identification information being obtained electronically from one or more second servers that provide the second web site, and each of the one or more second servers being a different server than each of the one or more first servers;
• receiving first web browsing data based upon monitoring first web browsing of the first user, the monitoring the first web browsing being performed by another device;
• determining, based upon the first web browsing data and based upon the first identification information, a first suggested item for purchase by the first user;
• transmitting an identification of the first suggested item to the another device that performs the monitoring to facilitate a presentation of the identification of the first suggested item to the first user;
• and
• making available for viewing, by another user, the first identification information while keeping hidden, from the another user, the second identification information.

A method comprising:

• storing by a processing system including a processor, in a personal inventory database, first identification information associated with a first item purchased by a first user at a first website of a first merchant, the first identification information being obtained electronically from one or more first servers that provide the first website;
• storing by the processing system, in the personal inventory database, second identification information associated with a second item purchased by the first user at a second website of a second merchant, the second merchant being a different merchant than the first merchant, the second website being a different website than the first website, the second identification information being obtained electronically from one or more second servers that provide the second website, and each of the one or more second servers being a different server than each of the one or more first servers;
• receiving by the processing system first web browsing data based upon monitoring first web browsing of the first user, the monitoring the first web browsing being performed by another device;
• determining by the processing system, based upon the first web browsing data and based upon the first identification information, a first suggested item for purchase by the first user;
• transmitting by the processing system an identification of the first suggested item to the another device that performs the monitoring to facilitate a presentation of the identification of the first suggested item to the first user;
• and
• making available for viewing, by another user, the first identification information while keeping hidden, from the another user, the second identification information.